Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.In the annals of government incompetence, few spectacles rival the Liberal government's Firearms Confiscation Compensation Scheme — a bloated, bungled exercise in political theatre that's limping into its sixth year.It’s not about public safety. It was never about public safety.It’s about votes. It was always about votes.And this bloated, six-year, billion-dollar boondoggle is where common sense, small businesses, and honest citizens are sacrificed on the altar of political theatre..PINDER: Is Canada a country?.First under Justin Trudeau, now under Mark Carney, it’s the same script with a new actor, and the same disastrous results.In 2020, after the Portapique mass killing spree, the Liberals swung a sledgehammer at licenced gun owners, not criminals.They slapped a “ban” on 1,500 so-called “assault-style” firearms that’s now ballooned to over 2,500 makes and models.The amnesty deadline is punted down the road year after year (the latest extension is October 2026), as though no one in Ottawa is willing to take responsibility for this scheme and the harm it does to the innocent..If this is public safety, then the Titanic was a lifeboat.Their grand 6-week “proof-of-concept” pilot program in Cape Breton was supposed to showcase how smoothly firearms confiscation would work.They expected up to 200 banned guns to be voluntarily surrendered.They held press conferences. They offered up the same, stale talking points with strategically planned smiles for all the cameras..THOMAS: CMHC not pausing funding, blanket upzoning repeal not in jeopardy.The result?Twenty-two guns turned in.That's less than the number of excuses Ottawa churned out to defend this epic failure.The local police chief who loudly supported the pilot program’s launch, Robert Walsh, refused to answer basic questions after its abject failure, calling it a “federal” problem, before conveniently retiring into obscurity..Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree insists the “technical capabilities” of the firearms confiscation scheme were demonstrated.If seizing 22 legally owned firearms in six weeks is Minister Anandasangaree’s definition of success, we shudder to think what he would consider “failure.”This isn’t just a political and public embarrassment. It’s economic vandalism dressed up as virtue.Firearms retailers — already hammered by the 2020 gun ban by Order in Council — surrendered more than 12,000 firearms in the first business phase of the program and received $22 million in taxpayer compensation for their trouble..EDITORIAL: Ottawa’s ‘Nation-Building’ pipeline deal comes with a steep price for Alberta.Phase two is now “postponed indefinitely.”So now, shop owners sit on dead inventory they can’t sell and can’t surrender for compensation; while still paying storage, insurance, and interest on the money they had to borrow to pay for new stock.Some of those businesses closed their doors for good.Those jobs weren’t “redistributed.” They’re gone. And they’re not coming back..The Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, dragged into appraising values in 2023, confirms what everyone on the ground already knows: Ottawa turned this file into a black hole.Money, time, and trust go in.Nothing but political grandstanding and carefully crafted talking points come out.Budget 2025 casually earmarked $38.7 million over three years..HANNAFORD: Ottawa finally backs Alberta oil — but at what cost?.That’s not a solution. That’s an insult.The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is in court to pry the true cost of their firearms confiscation compensation scheme out of the government’s clenched fist.Everyone knows the real tab will be measured in billions once administration, enforcement, storage, and constant deadline extensions are factored in.Leaked audio caught Minister Anandasangaree questioning whether the firearms confiscation scheme makes any sense at all..Imagine being “responsible” for a program when the person responsible for selling it to Canadians doesn’t believe in it.Carney’s Liberals now brag about a “national launch” that’s always “a few weeks away.”It’s the same Trudeau-era train wreck, repainted and rebranded. More half-baked ideology over evidence, and more political theatre over honesty and truth.Optics are always more important than actual, measurable public safety results..OLDCORN: BC’s pipeline hypocrisy — Eby gets a taste of how Albertans feel.After half a decade and untold millions, what do we have to show for it?Noncompliance hardened.Small businesses gutted, not supported.Public safety stats worsened, not improved..This isn’t government soberly wielding the sword of justice.This is government playing dress-up with power, waving prop swords while real criminals slip through the cracks.Imagine if those billions had gone to border security.Imagine if they were invested in mental healthcare..BORG: Lame duck Liberal MPs looking for international positions with cabinet shuffle coming.Imagine if they cut healthcare waitlists that actually cost Canadians their lives.Instead, we fund “public safety theatre” while calling it courageous action.This is not governance. It’s grandstanding at gunpoint.The foolishness isn’t in the firearms. It’s in the hands writing the regulations while emptying your wallet..Scrap the confiscation scheme. Completely.Enforce the laws already on the books.Target smugglers, gangs, and real criminals instead of branding lawful citizens as enemies of the state.Government is supposed to “minister to you for good,” not become the wrecking ball swung against honest people and their livelihoods.When rulers abuse that trust, citizens must say so. Clearly. Firmly. Persistently..GODFREY: Care-First or Court-First? Alberta’s bold move to fix auto insurance affordability.Demand stewardship, not showmanship.Demand justice, not headlines.Demand policies that actually save lives instead of burning billions of taxpayer dollars in the name of “feeling safe.”Because if we don’t, this won’t be the last billion-dollar bonfire with your hard-earned money.It will just be the warm-up.Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
